cracks in the Bond
567 Words
Kade couldn’t sleep.
Ever since that night the night Mira saved his life something in him had shifted.
His dreams were no longer his own. He’d see flashes of Mira standing in a burning forest… her eyes black, her skin glowing like a living rune. Behind her stood a creature with horns, smiling like the devil himself.
And every time he reached out for her, she disappeared into smoke.
Tonight was no different.
Kade jolted awake, chest heaving. The sheets clung to his sweat-slicked skin. Moonlight poured through the window, casting shadows on the stone walls of their room.
Mira wasn’t beside him.
Again.
He found her outside, sitting on the edge of the training cliffs, knees pulled to her chest. Her long white hair danced in the wind like threads of ice.
“Mira,” he said gently.
She didn’t turn around. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No.” He sat beside her. “You’ve been distant.”
A beat of silence.
“I’m trying to protect you,” she finally said.
“That’s the thing,” he replied, eyes narrowing slightly. “You shouldn’t have to protect me. You should trust me.”
She flinched.
Kade studied her profile. The mark on her belly was hidden, but he’d seen flashes of it in the mirror’s reflection before a glowing spiral of unfamiliar glyphs.
He’d read the prophecy earlier that day, buried in the Alpha archives.
The cursed one shall bear the key.
The blood of the void. The seed of the end.
He hadn’t wanted to believe it.
But now?
“I know,” he said softly.
Her head whipped toward him, eyes wide. “What?”
“I know you made a deal,” he said. “And I know something’s… inside you now. Something dark.”
Her lip trembled. “It was the only way to save you.”
“I didn’t ask you to save me like that, Mira.”
“You would’ve died!” she snapped, rising to her feet. “I couldn’t lose you, Kade. I won’t.”
He stood too. “So you sold your womb to a demon?”
Her slap came fast.
The sound echoed into the cliffs.
“I didn’t sell it,” she growled. “I gave it so you could live. So we could have this.”
“But at what cost?” he demanded. “Our future? Our child? You don’t even know what it will be!”
Silence.
Then, quietly, she said, “I don’t care what it becomes. I’ll love it no matter what.”
He stared at her.
And in that moment, he realized: she wasn’t Mira Thornveil anymore.
She was something else now. A mother. A vessel. A ticking time bomb with a power no pack in the realm could comprehend.
And despite the fear twisting in his gut…
He still loved her.
Later that night, Mira curled up in bed, Kade sleeping beside her, both emotionally drained.
That’s when the dream came.
Not for her…
…but for the child.
In the darkness of her womb, a presence bloomed warm, curious… then cold and vast.
And then, a voice.
“Hello, little godling,” Veyra whispered, his voice echoing inside her.
“Soon, you’ll open the gates for me. And we’ll tear down the world together.”
The fetus kicked.
And somewhere deep inside her, Mira felt it smile.
- Writer
